Sycamores Dominate From Plate & Mound Beating Redbirds 7-3 (3/31)

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bluepower

Baseball Mod
Sean Manaea was back to his peak form of last season through the first six innings...running into runners on first and second with no outs in the seventh. He then struck out the next three batters to give him ten on the day, which ties his college career best, which was set February 25th in a non-conference game against Maryland Eastern Shore. Manaea threw about 115 pitches in his eight and a third inning masterpiece and ended the day with 12 k's! Manaea gave up just three hits and allowed two walks--one to the first batter he faced in the game and one to the last. And, only two redbirds reached second base! Reggie Hochsteddler, the top go-to guy out of the pen, came on to strikeout the first batter, gave up a walk to the second and then allow a three-run homer. The final out came on fly to left.

From the dish, ISU broke out of their lackluster hitting streak (.205 in first four conference games) and stroked 10 hits, including a homer from Ort in the seventh and a double from Kraemer. ISU batters and baserunners took advantage of an error, four hit batters, two walks and a balk. The biggest outburst was a two out rally plating three runs in the sixth.

The Sycamores are now 3-2 in conference play and overall

In the field, The Sycamores were perfect with no errors or mental bloops.

Here's a link to the stats page for today's game:

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=4283

Here's the wrap-up story on today's game and box score from GoSycamores.com:

http://www.gosycamores.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=7256&DB_OEM_ID=15200&ATCLID=205406684

Postgame video comments from Coach Heller:

[video=facebook;637779148815]https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=637779148815[/video]
 
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The three starters have turned in solid performances in MVC games with a miniscule ERA. However, ISU still needs to nail down the relief pitching. Today it didn't matter...but in the wider scope of things, it will make a difference. ISU has more depth in relief pitching than it has had in years, but the reliability is not where it needs to be.

Relief pitching is the final cog that needs to be pulled into place...as starting pitching, fielding and htting are proven (although coming into today, the team batting average was a mediocre .205).
 
Good to see the offense "get serious" and come alive...gotta have the sticks if we expect to make some MVC noise.
 
Over the first five games of the MVC, here are the new numbers:

Team batting Average: .226

Opponent's Batting Average: .213

Team ERA: 1.83

Average ISU Runs Scored: 3.07
 
Postgame video comments from Coach Heller:

[video=facebook;637779148815]https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=637779148815[/video]
 

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One of my former colleagues, an ISU grad, and I made it to the Haute for today's game. It was a very nice day to watch the Sycamores soundly defeat the Redbirds. It was the first trip to Bob Warn field for either of us--impressive facility, clean and comfortable. This has to be one of the greatest bargains in sports; being in the OFC, admission was only $4. All ISU sports are most affordable. I believe we will be back at least once more this season; we would like to see a night game, but the latest start is 6:30. We visited the bookstore and walked around campus. I had not toured campus since the 70's and he graduated in the 80's. We had been back for basketball and football, but had not really been on campus. What a change! You can't say ugly anymore. It was nice to see one of our former students watching the game with a few friends--told him to bring more friends tomorrow.
 
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I'm heading toward Lynchburg, VA Monday...gonna try to catch an ISU game on THIS 3-week swing across America (I drive OTR, then return home to Melbourne Beach, FL for a week of R & R).

How was the crowd? Do the ISU "game management" personnel keep things "active" during the mid-innings, conferences & TO's? Does Sycamore Sam do any "diamond tricks?" A mascot can really have fun @ a baseball game...if his heart is where it should be.
 
Temps were in the high 50's, light wind, partially sunny with a crowd of, I'm guessing, 400 or more. I was surprised how many of the chair back seats were sold. The first baseline bleachers were far from full. There was plenty of room for the toddlers in attendance to have room to roam and play without bothering anyone while parents watched the game as well as the kids. PA work was well done with music and appropriate sound effects (things like breaking glass on foul balls) and very good game related announcements. There were 2 participation promos that I remember--the idiotic dice game and a tee ball hitting contest for 2 small kids. If Sam was in attendance I didn't see him.
 
Nice story on Manaea's growth & maturity...really like the lineup shuffling done by Coach Heller to alleviate the offensive slump. Herbst is doing a great job w/ the pitching staff this season and we've gotta have those bats dinging
to help 'em.
 

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